Heidi Clare is widely acknowledged as the best old-time fiddler currently performing. Her style and the material that she chooses to perform keeps alive the hundreds-years-old traditions established by immigrant fiddlers who came to America starting in the seventeenth century and established the fiddle as a major American instrument for dancing, Appalachian ballads and hoedowns, and bluegrass breakdowns. She applies the muscle to her performances that has been indicative of the hard working pioneer farmers and stockmen and women who carried the traditional sounds of the instrument into modern times.

She not only plays the music that drove the raucous dances of those pioneers, but she dances the steps and sings those joyous and wistful songs of the era. She has performed all over the U.S. with her current band as well as with her former band, the Reeltime Travelers, which also recorded on the sound track of the movie, Cold Mountain. Heidi Clare is a formally trained classical violinist and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music and a Master of Music Education with an emphasis in Kodaly from Holy Names University. She has performed with such stalwarts of acoustic music as Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Steve Earle. Heidi has five recordings out to date.

As the Hellman Visiting Artist for 2011-2012 at UCSF, Heidi led monthly workshops with the intent to generate a dialogue between scientists, caregivers, patients, clinicians and the public regarding creativity and the brain. She also worked directly with patients with neurodegenerative diseases. The further intent of the workshops was to aid the UCSF community and general public in understanding how music can communicate through cognitive and linguistic barriers; help scientists, doctors and healthcare workers see the whole persons beyond their diseases; use music to reconnect families living with members who have dementia; and help inspire empathy about dementia and aging in the general public.

Heidi is a Fellow at UCSF as part of the Global Brain Health Initiative. She is establishing parallel music programs in San Francisco and Dublin (Ireland) for our elders as well as developing a radio show/podcast for the purpose of creating public awareness for elder advocacy.

Eric Drew Feldman
Ever since the late, great Captain Beefheart gave him his first full-time job in 1976, Eric Drew Feldman has worked with some of the most influential, experimental and pioneering artists in rock. Feldman, a keyboard, bass and synthetics player, composer, producer and sonic architect, had been studying at UCLA with electronic music pioneer and analog synthesist Dr Philip Springer and playing in local bands when Beefheart asked him to join his Magic Band. Barely out of his teens, he spent the next five years touring the US and Europe, playing keyboards, bass, mellotron and minimoog. He is featured on the albums Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller), Doc at the Radar Station and Ice Cream For Crow.

In 1981 Feldman moved from Los Angeles to San Francisco, where he worked with Serge Tcherepnin, designer of the analog Serge Modular synthesiser. He also formed a close musical collaboration with expat British singer/guitarist and Residents associate Snakefinger, which lasted until Snakefinger's death in 1987, and resulted in the albums History Of The Blues, Manuel Of Errors and Night of Desirable Objects the last two of which Feldman co-produced. During this time Feldman also composed musical scores for several theatrical productions, like Sam Shepard's The Tooth Of Crime.

In 1988 Feldman was asked to join Pere Ubu, David Thomas's critically acclaimed 'avant-garage' rock band. He played synthetics and keyboards, first on the Cloudland tour and then the Worlds In Collision album in 1991. When Pere Ubu supported the Pixies on their 1989 tour, Pixies founder/songwriter Black Francis asked him to play on what would turn out to be the final Pixies album and tour, Trompe Le Monde. He also asked him to produce and play on his first two classic solo albums, Frank Black (1993) and Teenager Of The Year (1994).

In 1995, Feldman joined PJ Harvey's band. The rest of the decade was spent playing with her on tour, on her 1996 project with John Parish Dance Hall At Louse Point and on her 1998 album Is This Desire. During breaks, Feldman produced dEUS's album In A Bar Under The Sea, neo-psychedelic band Tripping Daisies' Jesus Hits Like The Atom Bomb, a hit single, 'Apartment,' for Australian indie rock band Custard and Sparklehorse's UK hit 'Happy Man.'

Feldman's association with Harvey continued in the new millennium on albums and tours including Uh Huh Her (2004), White Chalk (2007) and the Harvey/Parish A Woman A Man Walked By (2008). In between, Feldman also toured with avant-garde band The Residents and produced several albums, including symphonic rock band the Polyphonic Spree's Together We're Heavy. (2004). He also put together his own band, kNIFE & fORK, with Laurie Hall of psych-punks Ovarian Trolley. Rolling Stone magazine described their co-written songs as "atmospheric alchemy - classic blues filtered through avant garde composer Tony Conrad." PJ Harvey called them "one of the only bands that have affected me in recent years. Unpredictable, beautiful, powerful and moving, quite unlike anything else."

Feldman continues to work with Black Francis, from his 2000 album Dog In The Sand (2000) to 2008's The Golem, a new score to the 1915 silent movie classic, and NonStopErotik (2010), which Feldman co-produced. Recent projects include producing the 2011 Jimmie Dale Gilmore and the Wronglers album Heirloom Music and recording a new kNIFE & fORK album The Higher You Get, The Rarer the Vegetation.

Eric Pearson plays many instruments in many genres with great creativity. He has performed and recorded as a solo artist and with a multitude of bands including Mushroom, Sonya Hunter, Alice Bierhorst, Crooked Jades, Nearly Beloved, The Billy Talbot Band, Irene Sazer and The Stairwell Sisters. Pearson tours the US with master storyteller Diane Ferlatte. They have made six award-winning CDs, including three Parent’s Choice Gold awards, and a 2007 Grammy® nomination for Wickety Whack, Brer Rabbit is Back. Performance highlights include The National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN (where 10,000+ people come to hear stories), and The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.

Erik is also a fine teacher who shares his knowledge with great openness. The styles he teaches range from old time folk music, singer-songwriters to free-improv jazz-rock on the guitar (acoustic and electric), banjo, and ukulele.

Erik holds a degree in Music Composition and Cultural Anthropology from the famed Oberlin College/Conservatory of Music, has composed music for San Francisco choreographers Chris Black and Jordan Fuchs, and written film and chamber music ranging from Creeping Dawn: Mountain & Shadow, a prize winning composition for 24 recorders commissioned by the American Recorder Orchestra of the West, to “Fork & File”, a banjo composition on the Crooked Jades’ World’s on Fire CD which was included in the soundtrack for Sean Penn’s 2007.

Mick Hellman is a Founder and Managing Partner of HMI Capital. Prior to creating HMI Capital, Mick spent most of his career at Hellman & Friedman, LLC where he was a Managing Director and a member of the Investment Committee. While at Hellman & Friedman, Mick founded the software and logistics (ports and container terminals) verticals and established the firm’s Hong Kong office. He was instrumental in Hellman & Friedman’s investments in Blackbaud, Hongkong International Terminals and Mitchell International. Prior to joining Hellman & Friedman in 1987, Mick worked as a Financial Analyst at Salomon Brothers in San Francisco in the Corporate Finance Department.

Currently, Mick is a trustee of the Rosenberg Foundation, the USA Cycling Development Foundation and the UC Berkeley Foundation. Mick also serves as a Senior Advisor to Hellman & Friedman, LLC and is a member of Hall Capital Partners, LLC’s Board of Directors. Prior Board involvement includes Blackbaud (NYSE: BLKB, Chairman: 1999 to 2009); Hongkong International Terminals; Mitchell International; Foxcroft School (Board Chair and Chair of the Investment Committee); and the Bay Area Discovery Museum.

Now retired from bike racing, Mick reached the peak of his racing career in 2007 when he placed first in Individual Pursuit at the Masters World Track Championship and second in the Masters World Time Trial Championship, in both cases for men ages 45-49.

Mick received a B.A. in Economics with High Distinction from the University of California at Berkeley and an M.B.A. with Distinction from Harvard Business School. Mick and his wife Sabrina have five grown daughters and live in San Francisco with their dog, Levi. Mick plays the drums for his family band, The Go To Hellman Clan.